Abstract The airborne environment is a critical juncture linking terrestrial and aquatic habitats, yet the algae of this environment are not well-characterised and understood. The goal of this study was to examine seasonality patterns of airborne algae in a tropical environment. Airborne algae were collected monthly in spore traps on a building rooftop on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, U.S.A. from December 2015 to March 2017. Metabarcoding of Universal Plastid Amplicon (UPA) and 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) markers was used to characterise the algal diversity in the samples relative to meteorological data. Modelled back-trajectories of air masses arriving at the site demonstrated that months with the highest rainfall corresponded to those with the strongest tradewind signal. Thirty airborne algal Exact Sequence Variant (ESV)s were identified using the UPA marker including Cyanobacteria (20), Chlorophyta (4), Streptophyta (3), Chrysophyceae (1), Synurophyceae (1), and unknown Stramenopila (1). Forty-four ESVs were identified using the 16S marker and consisted of Cyanobacteria (43) and plastids of Streptophyta (1). The number and diversity of sequence reads obtained varied strongly both among samples for a given time period and from month to month. Highest rainfall and air temperatures corresponded to months with the largest cyanobacterial relative abundance according to the UPA marker. Although cyanobacteria were the most common group identified using the 16S marker, the dominant cyanobacterial taxon varied by month. Diversity or abundance patterns were not explained by meteorological conditions, which may be due to the relatively small annual amplitude in conditions in the Hawaiian Islands.

中文翻译：

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热带空气藻类的季节性：基于夏威夷群岛高通量测序的 16 个月研究

摘要 空气传播环境是连接陆地和水生栖息地的关键节点，但该环境中的藻类尚未得到很好的表征和了解。这项研究的目的是检查热带环境中空气藻类的季节性模式。2015 年 12 月至 2017 年 3 月，在美国夏威夷瓦胡岛的建筑物屋顶上的孢子陷阱中每月收集空气中的藻类。通用质体扩增子 (UPA) 和 16S 核糖体 RNA (rRNA) 标记的元条形码用于表征藻类样本相对于气象数据的多样性。模拟到达现场的气团回溯轨迹表明，降雨量最高的月份与信风信号最强的月份相对应。使用 UPA 标记物鉴定了 30 种空气传播藻类精确序列变体 (ESV)，包括蓝藻 (20)、叶绿藻 (4)、链藻 (3)、金藻科 (1)、藻藻科 (1) 和未知链藻 (1)。使用 16S 标记鉴定了 44 个 ESV，由蓝藻 (43) 和链霉菌 (1) 的质体组成。获得的序列读数的数量和多样性在给定时间段内和每个月的样本之间变化很大。根据 UPA 标记，最高降雨量和气温对应于蓝藻相对丰度最高的月份。虽然蓝藻是使用 16S 标记识别的最常见的群体，但主要的蓝藻分类群因月而异。气象条件无法解释多样性或丰度模式，